INSURANCE

Sharp price and product competition characterized the private insurance world in 1995, enhanced by company consolidations and restructurings to reduce expenses. Catastrophes of many kinds tested the loss-paying abilities of insurers, from devastating earthquakes in Japan and Mexico to an unusually large number of hurricanes in the Americas. The Caribbean islands were badly hit, and Hurricane Opal, with insured losses exceeding $2 billion, became the third worst windstorm loss in U.S. history. Only Hurricane Hugo, at $4 billion in 1989, and Hurricane Andrew, at $15 billion in 1992, were larger. The most severe flood losses ever occurred in California.

First-half results for U.S. property-liability insurers were quite favourable, with net income up 270%, surpluses up 17% (with large realized capital gains), and net underwriting losses down 39%. Catastrophes for the first nine months were costly, a record 29 totaling $5.7 billion in insured losses. After several decades of spiraling losses in workers’ compensation, state reforms lowered costs by 5%.

Universal life insurance premiums in the U.S. for the first half of 1995 gained 18% over the same period in 1994, while variable life premiums were down an equal percentage. AIDS deaths curtailed improvements in longevity, but the $5 billion in AIDS-related life insurance claims paid up to 1995 were much less than earlier predictions, and health claims dropped to $450 million. For the first time in many years, general health care costs rose less than inflation.

The number one insurance issue noted in a survey by the Society of Insurance Research was the debate over banks in insurance. The issue continued to cause rifts between both businesses, and federal legislation proposed a five-year moratorium on actions by the comptroller of the currency. Banks in several states, including Florida and Connecticut, gained the right to sell annuities. New automated underwriting systems using credit-risk evaluations were gaining favour. Insurance companies led 10 industry groups surveyed in their use of telecommuting with personal computers and modems. At the same time, high-technology thieves were costing insurers $8 billion a year. Environmental-impairment liability insurance rates were down 5-20%, and the expanding market offered wider coverage options.

Term life insurance rates sank to all-time lows. Better information for policyholders was the aim of a new questionnaire recommended by Chartered Life Underwriters to determine whether existing policies should be canceled. Life insurers moved substantial surpluses to fund requirements for new "asset valuation reserves." In the U.K. telephone marketing of motor and household insurance increased competition. Some 25 companies, including subsidiaries of all the principal groups, were doing such business. The market leader, Direct Line, owned by the Bank of Scotland, was highly profitable.

Mergers continued at a record pace for insurers around the world. In the U.S. consolidations under way or completed included Metropolitan and New England Life, Massachusetts and Connecticut Mutual Life, Jefferson-Pilot and Alexander Hamilton Life, Manulife and North American Life, Phoenix Home Life and Duff and Phelps, CNA and Continental Insurance, Kemper and Zurich, Humana and Emphesys, and MetraHealth and United Health Care. A new insurer, Prudential Select Life, began to sell level-commission life insurance contracts. Risk Capital Holdings, a new reinsurer, traded publicly after raising $240 million. Two large reinsurers, General Re and Employers Reinsurance, bought German reinsurers. Cigna boosted its asbestos and environmental liability reserves by $1.2 billion following sizable increases by other companies, including Aetna Life and Casualty, Fireman’s Fund, and Swiss Re America.

Lloyd’s of London showed improving results in 1995, but turbulence continued. As the number of individual underwriting members and syndicates fell amid the market restructuring, corporate risk takers provided 23% of the coverage. Bermuda’s international market readied for a renewed boom with a new premier and a vote rejecting independence.

In the U.S. bitter debates raged over how to contain the burgeoning costs of Medicare. Related issues included the projected savings of managed-care plans, cuts in benefits, medical malpractice liability limits, and tax changes. Extension beyond year-end of Superfund financing for environmental cleanup was also a major controversy involving insurers, centring on who should pay for future and retroactive costs. Life insurers rallied to oppose legislation that would have taken away the tax deductibility of interest on loans for company-owned policies. Insurance commissioners in various states weighed legislative action to alleviate problems such as new limits in California earthquake insurance, overwhelming growth in the Florida windstorm market, and insurance fraud. Tort reform bills made slow progress in some states, restricting claims for noneconomic, punitive, and product liability awards. The bills were attacked as limiting the right of injured consumers to redress.

Elsewhere, regulations aimed to protect insurance policyholders by promoting reasonable competition. The U.K., for example, sought to control growing national health service deficits by encouraging private insurance, which 11% of the population already had for medical and hospital expenses. David L. Bickelhaup

Business and Industry Review: Year In Review 1995. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/86282/Business-and-Industry-Review-Year-In-Review-1995/233049/INSURANCE

Click anywhere inside the article to add text or insert superscripts, subscripts, and special characters.
You can also highlight a section and use the tools in this bar to modify existing content:

Add links to related Britannica articles!
You can double-click any word or highlight a word or phrase in the text below and then select an article from the search box.
Or, simply highlight a word or phrase in the article, then enter the article name or term you'd like to link to in the search box below, and select from the list of results.

Note: we do not allow links to external resources in editor.
Please click the Web sites link for this article to add citations for
external Web sites.